Staten Island election outcome very much up in the air

Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-HammelThe Board of Elections (BOE) next Wednesday will begin its standard recount of the votes cast in Tuesday's special election, and also will begin counting absentee and affidavit ballots that were not part of the election-night tally.

With a razor-thin margin separating Kenneth Mitchell and Debi Rose, it will be a week or more before North Shore voters know who will next represent them in the City Council.

The Board of Elections (BOE) next Wednesday will begin its standard recount of the votes cast in Tuesday's special election, and also will begin counting crucial absentee and affidavit ballots that were not part of the election-night tally.

All the ballots are under lock and key at Staten Island BOE headquarters in Clifton, said BOE general counsel Steven Richman.

A preliminary BOE tally on Tuesday had Mitchell leading Ms. Rose by 34 votes in the election, which was conducted entirely with paper ballots.

The Associated Press that night had Mitchell up by 241 votes, but BOE sources said yesterday that Mitchell's margin appeared to be just 91 votes.

They attributed the fluctuating totals to errors made while votes were being tabulated by election workers.

The new Council member will not be sworn in until after the BOE certifies the results following Wednesday's recount.

With the margin so tight, the absentee and affidavit ballots could decide the outcome.

"It's not going to be over for a while," said Ms. Rose. "It's clear to us we could win this."

Richman said the weeklong wait for the recount is standard board procedure, in order to allow absentee ballots that might still be in the mail to arrive.

Absentee ballots, including those sent by people serving in the military, will be counted in the election if they are postmarked by midnight Feb. 23.

"We'll take a look at everything on Wednesday," said Mitchell. "I think it will be a positive result for me."

Absentee ballots usually mirror the overall result, but Mitchell and Ms. Rose both did targeted outreach to regular absentee voters, so it's unclear whom those ballots would favor.

Absentee ballots are also frequently used by seniors, however, whom Mitchell counts among his voters.

Affidavits are filled out by voters whose names don't appear in the voter books at the poll site. Political rule of thumb says that a larger percentage of affidavits is seen in communities with minority or transient voters, which could boost Ms. Rose, who is seeking to become the first African-American elected official in borough history.

"It's going to be the affidavits versus the absentees," said one BOE source. "It's going to be about lawyers hashing it out."

The BOE said 395 absentee ballots already had been received. The number of affidavit ballots is unknown.

Also set to be re-examined on Wednesday are ballots that were "improperly" marked by voters on election night.

Voters were told to use a pen to fill in an oval on the ballot near the name of the candidates they wanted to vote for.

But some voters said they were given confusing information about how to fill in the ballot. Observers said that some voters circled their preferred candidate or placed an X next to the name.

Richman said that "if the voter's intent is clear, the board's standard is to count the ballot."

But deciding what constitutes a properly filled-in ballot could be a sticking point at next week's recount, with some observers believing that a protracted, Florida- or Minnesota-style legal dispute could ensue.